BT Acquires Ufindus

Published on 15/07/2008

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BT has announced the acquisition of Ufindus Ltd one of the UK’s leading online business directories by traffic. The acquisition from Iomart Group plc for an enterprise value of £20 million in cash underpins the continued growth of BT Directories, BT’s classified advertising and directories business.

Ufindus is an acknowledged leader in online classified advertising with more than 20,000 small and medium-sized business customers across the UK and 1.9 million online directory listings. Ufindus offers its customers broad online exposure via its three generalist search directories – SmileLocal, MoreUK and Ufindus – and more than a hundred niche directories focused on individual trades such as builderregister.com and bathroomspecialistfinder.com. As part of an overall online package customers can also choose to have a website designed by Ufindus’ specialist team within days. Ufindus’ combined portfolio generates more than 9 million searches per month, offering customers a highly cost-effective web presence targeted at local customers searching for specific product and service categories. Ufindus has 300 employees and is headquartered in Lancaster, with sales offices in Chorley, Blackpool, Barrow and Huddersfield. In the year to March 31 2007, Ufindus generated revenues of £14 million.

BT Directories aims to become a leading provider of consumer enquiries to businesses, reflected in the recent launch of BT Exchanges, a new online directory service that offers consumers innovative ways to find, share, review and connect to businesses. David Benjamin, CEO of BT Directories said: “Ufindus will play an important role in the continued development of BT Directories’ online portfolio. Through Ufindus’ considerable expertise and experience in online classified advertising, we access further local classified product offerings, significant search traffic and new customers for this fast-growing part of our business.”